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August 27, 2008|Maria L. La Ganga, Times Staff Writer A divided Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday in support of offshore drilling, after an impassioned daylong hearing in which this year's record gas prices trumped the memory of a disastrous oil spill.
By a 3-2 vote that broke along geographic lines, supervisors agreed to send a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him to change state policy and "allow expanded oil exploration and extraction" off the county's coast.
The situation is complicated somewhat by past presidential and congressional moratoria as well as environmental laws, but the federal government owns the continental shelf beyond three miles, the so-called outer continental shelf. That isn't very "outer" because three miles isn't very far offshore. There had been a federal moratorium for decades on drilling the West Coast OCS, which expired during the Bush Administration. Bush was going ahead with a leasing program, the first step of which was opening exploration. That is what Obama has now blocked. Everyone knew this program was intended to result in drilling, which is why conservatives chanted "drill baby, drill" and liberals opposed the plan.
States have jurisdiction over the three miles adjacent to the coast. California has closed that to further drilling, although some groups and the Governor have thrown around proposals that might allow some. That's what your post addressed. California, however, does not own the OCS and its ban does not extend there.
Obama reinstated the federal moratorium although it could once again be lifted because the California moratorium, or more accurately prohibition, does not extend to the federal offshore lease areas. Now, will you end this pointless exercise??